Acknowledgements

This stuff never gets any easier, so I’m just going to dive in and hope we all make it out without losing a year or two off our lives! ;)

Firstly, to my darling non-husband Ben, you, mister are my life! Here’s to many more years of beautiful, imperfect, aggressive barn dancing!

Ava and Ari, I love you more than … CHICKENS! Thanks for being the best kids walking the planet! I love you guys so much! Don’t ever grow up! It’s unnecessary, and I’m pretty sure it’s a trap!

To all the women in my family: Mum, Chrissy, Nan Higgins, Nan Jenner, Ma, Leila Teys Bates, Barb Habner, Lauren Jenner, Sue Jenner, Trudy Duncombe, Zoe Duncombe, Simone Ellis, and all of my beautiful Aunts, thank you for teaching me that a strong woman comes in all different forms. From warriors to healers, and everything in between. All of you are superheroes!

To Sydvegas, you girls save me from myself—and let’s be honest, you save me from making even more of a tool out of myself on the internet—every day! I’m blessed to have each one of you in my life! Thank you for cheering me on in everything from books to life, to just generally getting out of bed in the morning. I don’t know how I’d cope without you and the few short weekends we get to spend together throughout the year are never, ever enough! #FLYFF #I’mBatman

Special thanks to my beta readers, Kristine from Glass Paper Ink Book blog, Alexis from Reality Bites! Let’s Get Lost!, Ali from Black Heart Reviews, Simone Nicole, and Jennifer Ryder.

Kristine and Simone, Gah! You girls know what I went through while writing KICK! He tore my heart out, stomped on it, and shoved the mashed up pieces back inside my chest cavity, and then he smacked my arse and sent me on my way. You both travelled that road with me and held my hands, and I think you saw Kick as clearly as I did, and you felt all the things I felt about this book! Thank you for being the first to lay eyes on him in all his messy, fucked-up glory, and for telling me I had something worth fighting for here!

Kristine, woman, I fucking love you! From Deen Peen to which lippie we hould order next, I never get tired of our rambling conversations. I love how much you see into my words, sometimes even more than I’ve picked up on. You don’t read books, you feel them. I hope every author you beta/review for realises how damn lucky they are! I see very big things for you and Glass Paper Ink, sweet! And I’m so freaking excited!

Simone, thank you for loving my boy as much as you do! For taking time away from your own writing schedule to ease my fragile, insecure mind! Your encouragement and cheerleading on Kick’s story means more than you will ever know!

Alexis, damn girl, I value your feedback so much! Your advice is always thorough, always concise, and always leaves me feeling like I’m on the right track. And your quote, “Dark, Sexual Chaos”, has to be one of the best things that’s ever been written about any of my books.

Ali, my little Alicat. I miss your damn face, lady! I’m so grateful to you for being the first person outside of my family to tell me I could do this. You won’t ever know what your words mean to me, and how much I depend on your friendship and your feedback! Now, move your arse to Aus and everything will be awesome.

JJ, thanks for waving the pom poms, lady, and for taking time away from your own work to read and revel in the madness of my boy!

Super humongous squishy cuddles of thanks to my incredible editor Lauren McKeller (#McStellar), it becomes more and more difficult to tell you with each book just how much I value your work, because what can I say but: YOU MAKE MY BOOKS BETTER! I’d be lost without you! I don’t know how you do it, but thank you for putting up with me—and for not showing me how many of those red crosses on your calendar belong to me pushing back deadlines, and asking to be fit in elsewhere. I can’t imagine ever working with another editor! Somehow you’re always simultaneously making me feel like Hemingway and pushing me to write better—not better than Hemmo, cause that’s kinda impossible but better than my last book—and I can’t thank you enough for that. I’m gonna win my Hoover back baby! :P

Ben from Be Designs, otherwise known as; the Greatest and Best Cover Designer in the World, thank you for creating such beautiful masterpieces! For formatting my books at a moments notice, creating my teasers, swag, helping me set up my new computer when I blow up yet another laptop and for putting up with me! J

Heartfelt thanks to Wander Aguiar Photography and his dream team for the stunning cover image. Wander, your talent knows no bounds. It’s an absolute joy to work with you, Andrey Bahia and Jenny Flores. Here’s to many more beautiful covers in the future.

To Dylan Horsch and his pretty face, thank you for being the living embodiment for my cranky biker, Kick. I realise this is an odd thing to thank someone for, but I can’t even with that face. Don’t even get me started on that quintessentially Kick eyebrow raise.

To my Sugar Junkies—and I guess now also my Kick Cave Crusaders—I don’t have enough words to express my gratitude to you ladies! From those of you who have been with me from the beginning to those of you who have just joined, you’ll never know what your love support and supreme pimping skills do for me! I’d love to thank you all individually, but I’d hate myself if I forgot any of you, so please forgive my blanket thanks, and accept my offering of more delicious tattooed man candy!

To the A is for F*cking Awesome girls, each of you gorgeous ladies inspire me every day! I’m so glad to have a safe place to go play on the internet where there is no judgement, just a handful of smart, hard working women who want to help one another and see each other succeed. “Girls compete with each other, women uplift one another.” I don’t know who said that phrase, but I look at our little corner of the internet, and I can’t help but feel so much this!

Thanks to TRSoR for an incredible Cover Reveal and Blog Tour with KICK! I’m thrilled to have had you girls on this book!

Kylie from Give Me Books you are a freaking superstar! Thank you for taking on my Cover Reveals, Release Day Parties and Blitz’s! You go above and beyond, lady, and I’m so thrilled to be working with you and your GMB and One-Click Addict girls!

And finally a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU full of cupcakes, lipstick and sexy bikers—three of my favourite things—to the readers and bloggers who follow, support, pimp, review, talk me up, and become as excited as I am about each of my releases. Without you, I wouldn’t get to do what I love, live and breathe!